Jesus Calls Levi and Eats With Sinners^(A)

²⁷ After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,”^(B) Jesus said to him, ²⁸ and Levi got up, left everything and followed him.^(C)

²⁹ Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors^(D) and others were eating with them. ³⁰ But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect^(E) complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”^(F)

³¹ Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. ³² I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”^(G)

²² This righteousness^(A) is given through faith^(B) in^[a] Jesus Christ^(C) to all who believe.^(D) There is no difference between Jew and Gentile,^{(E) 23} for all have sinned^(F) and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ and all are justified^(G) freely by his grace^(H) through the redemption^(I) that came by Christ Jesus.